Slugs, neighbours pets, neighbours

I lined an area at the back end of my garden with pyracantha (all year interest) and rosa rugosa (big fat hips, like cherry tomatoes, which the birds adore).

 

You noticed that too eh? I'm not the only one then!

 

Vive la diffference Monsieur Shiney,

 

That is a stunning place!

 

Even in mid-summer it's chilly in there.
Maybe that's why.

 

Hmmmm, when I read the OP my first thought wasn't about how to block up a narrow passage, it was: "How useful would it be in a real emergency?" C'mon, we were all kids at one time, and mischief was all part of the fun. After all, these young'uns did take the trouble to stop and ask, so that automatically gives them bonus points in my book. Personally, I'd think hard about the prickles...

Regards,
Steve

 

The first time ...

... call me a sceptic, but ...

 

Why is there this apparent detachment twixt adults and children these days? When I went to my first secondary school, gardening was a subject on the curriculum. I missed it at the next school I went to! Over 50 years on, I can remember how proud I was to get a star for spelling out the word chrysanthemum. It seems that you can't even talk to children these days without being labelled as someone of very dodgy character. This breeds an extraordinary distrust, which is presumably where the skepticism shown comes from.

"Inspiring a generation" seems to be the buzz phrase of today, so if gardening hardly ever features in a school curriculum these days, how do we ever instil a basic interest in youngsters? Is it by presenting them with prickly barriers, I mean really, is it?

...as opposed to being someone who may be approachable and could possibly ignite a life-long spark in this hobby?

Regards,
Steve

 

Because respectful children are rare nowadays.

 

No use at all. If the house was on fire and the only escape was out the back way, the gap down the side would mean squeezing past a burning house rather than simply running out the back.

I have a young son too. He is at the age where he is inspired by older kids. He saw the kids come through the cut. This added to my concern that sooner or later he would go out through the cut, straight out to the front of the property, where there is a road.

Yes, and if I'd known then how much it winds people up to think how much hard work they've put into building a career, saving up for a deposit for a house, getting said house and being financially wiped out in doing so, having converted the garden from a waste ground to a garden on a budget of pence, and back breaking work, all for someone else to just use it as they see fit, I for one would never have done any garden-hopping as a kid.

They stopped to ask because I caught them red handed. I know for fact that they have since tried to get through, because my new barrier has a foot shaped dent in it.

The trouble is, kids have no respect because they are usually assumed to be guilty just because they are kids. There's a few old sayings like 'respect your elders' and 'respect has to be earned'. I agree with both, but I also think its up to us adults to try to teach respect. You can't do that by assuming guilt, as that just drives a wedge in. I agree kids are toe rags (all kids, no matter how 'good' they seem to be), but if you show them respect, just sometimes they will take something from that.